1The Lord said to Moses, 2“Send some men to explore the land of Canaan. This is the land that I will give to the people of Israel. Send one leader from each of the twelve family groups.” 3So Moses obeyed the Lord’s command. Moses sent out these leaders while the people were camped in the desert of Paran. 4These are the names of those leaders: from Reuben’s family group—Shammua son of Zaccur; 5from Simeon’s family group—Shaphat son of Hori; 6from Judah’s family group—Caleb son of Jephunneh; 7from Issachar’s family group—Igal son of Joseph; 8from Ephraim’s family group—Hoshea son of Nun; 9from Benjamin’s family group—Palti son of Raphu; 10from Zebulun’s family group—Gaddiel son of Sodi; 11from Joseph’s family group (Manasseh)—Gaddi son of Susi; 12from Dan’s family group—Ammiel son of Gemalli; 13from Asher’s family group—Sethur son of Michael; 14from Naphtali’s family group—Nahbi son of Vophsi; 15from Gad’s family group—Geuel son of Maki. 16Those are the names of the men that Moses sent to look at and study the land. (Moses called Hoshea son of Nun by another name. Moses called him Joshua.) 17When Moses was sending them out to explore Canaan, he said, “Go through the Negev and then into the hill country. 18See what the land looks like. Learn about the people who live there. Are they strong or are they weak? Are they few or are they many? 19Learn about the land that they live in. Is it good land or bad land? What kind of towns do they live in? Do the towns have walls protecting them? Are the towns strongly defended? 20And learn other things about the land. Is the dirt good for growing things, or is it poor soil? Are there trees on the land? Also, try to bring back some of the fruit from that land.” (This was during the time when the first grapes should be ripe.) 21So they went to explore the country. They explored the area from the Zin desert to Rehob and Lebo Hamath. 22They entered the country through the Negev and went to Hebron. (The town of Hebron was built seven years before the town of Zoan in Egypt.) Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai lived there. These men were descendants of Anak. 23Then the men went to Eshcol Valley. There, the men cut off a branch from a grapevine. The branch had a bunch of grapes on it. They put that branch on a pole. And two men carried it between them. They also carried some pomegranates, and figs. 24That place is called the Eshcol Valley, because that is the place where the men of Israel cut off the bunch of grapes. 25The men explored that country for 40 days. Then they went back to the camp. 26The people of Israel were camped near Kadesh, in the desert of Paran. The men went to Moses and Aaron and all the Israelite people. The men told Moses, Aaron, and all the people about the things they saw. And they showed them the fruit from the land. 27The men told Moses, “We went to the land where you sent us. It is a land filled with many good things! Here is some of the fruit that grows there. 28But the people living there are very powerful. The cities are very large. The cities are strongly defended. We even saw some Anakite people there. 29The Amalekite people live in the Negev. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites live in the hill country. The Canaanites live near the sea and by the Jordan River.” 30Caleb told the people near Moses to be quiet. Then Caleb said, “We should go up and take that land for ourselves. We can easily take that land.” 31But the men that had gone with him said, “We can’t fight those people! They are much stronger than we are.” 32And those men told all the people of Israel that they were not strong enough to defeat the people in that land. They said, “The land we saw is full of strong people. Those people are strong enough to easily defeat any person who goes there. 33We saw the giant Nephilim people there! (The descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim people.) They looked at us like we were little grasshoppers. Yes, we were like grasshoppers to them!”